The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia hosted a domestic violence training seminar in Bainbridge on Thursday. Prosecutors, law enforcement officers and victim advocates from around the region attended the daylong training seminar. Sharla Jackson, the Prosecuting Attorney Council’s Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Resource Prosecutor, and the Decatur County District Attorney’s Office coordinated the seminary.

“The reason we do train together is because we have to work together in prosecuting these cases,” Jackson said.

The goal of the training seminar is to provide officials that will be involved in the investigation and prosecution of domestic violence and sexual assault cases with necessary resources. Sessions included a discussion on successfully prosecuting domestic violence cases, investigation of sexual assault cases, effective reports writing and the dynamics of domestic violence. There was also a session on strangulation.

“[Decatur County] is an area that doesn’t have a lot of resources for training and it is an area that I haven’t had a training in yet,” Jackson said.

In addition to attending these training seminars officials have the ability to use Jackson as a resource for any questions they have during the course of a domestic violence or sexual assault investigation and prosecution.

She said in recent years she has seen an increase in the number of people who call to ask her questions and also in the number of people that are re-attending training seminars She estimated that in any given years she hosts 15 training seminars around the state.